REPORTS OF CHINA a.d. 



c. 1565. 

 Moone, as they thinke good, for none are bound more [II. ii. 72.] 

 to one then to another. In their temples, the which 

 they do call Meani, they have a great altar in the Af ter the 

 same place as we have, true it is that one may goe Dutch J as wn - 

 round about it. There set they up the image of a 

 certaine Loutea of that countrey, whom they have in 

 great reverence for certaine notable things he did. At 

 the right hand standeth the divel much more ugly 

 painted then we doe use to set him out, whereunto 

 great homage is done by such as come into the temple 

 to aske counsell, or to draw lottes : this opinion they 

 have of him, that he is malicious and able to do evil. 

 If you aske them what they do thinke of the soules 

 departed, they will answere that they be immortall, and 

 that as soone as any one departeth out of this life, he 

 becommeth a divel if hee have lived well in this world, Pythagorean 



J' A 



if otherwise, that the same divel changeth him into a l e ' 

 bufle, oxe, or dogge. Wherefore to this divel they doe 

 much honour, to him doe they sacrifice, praying him that * 

 he will make them like unto himselfe, and not like other 

 beastes. They have moreover another sort of temples, 

 wherein both upon the altars and also on the walls do 

 stand many idols well proportioned, but bare headed : these 

 beare name Omithofon, accompted of them spirits, but such 

 as in heaven do neither good nor evill, thought to be 

 such men and women as have chastly lived in this world 

 in abstinence from fish and flesh, fed onely with rise 

 and salates. Of that divel they make some accompt : • 

 for these spirits they care litle or nothing at all. Againe 

 they holde opinion that if a man do well in this life, 

 the heavens will give him many temporall blessings, but 

 if he doe evil, then shall he have infirmities, diseases, 

 troubles, and penurie, and all this without any know- 

 ledge of God. Finally, this people knoweth no other 

 thing then to live and die, yet because they be reason- 

 able creatures, all seemed good unto them we speake in 

 our language, though it were not very sufficient : our 

 maner of praying especially pleased them, and truely 

 vi 305 u 



